Design an online chess platform
Company: Meta
Role: Software Engineer
Category: System Design
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Onsite
Design an online chess platform.
Requirements:
- User matchmaking (ranked/unranked).
- Real-time gameplay with low latency moves.
- Enforce game rules and clocks (timers).
- Persist game history and allow reconnection.
Out of scope: advanced cheat detection, analysis engine.
Overview: This question evaluates a candidate's system design skills, specifically real-time distributed systems, stateful service design, matchmaking logic, low-latency gameplay, rule and clock enforcement, persistence, and reconnection handling.